


A Minor Concern

by Arytra



Series: Section 123 [8]
Category: Sesame Street (TV)
Genre: A little bit of ableism, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventually Bob/Linda/Maria/David/Olivia/Luis, Family Feels, Fluff, Found family love, Gen, They just aren't there yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 06:11:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14805846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arytra/pseuds/Arytra
Summary: Penelope works in a Supernatural Agency where things happen.  Usually, they just don't happen to her.  Fortunately, she has a lot of help she can count on when one finally does.





	A Minor Concern

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be short and I don't know what happened. Still...

**Day 1**

“Travis? I'm remembering why I don't let you drive my car,” Penelope said, hanging onto the door and trying not to panic. This had been a terrible idea. Sure, she couldn't drive at the moment, but apparently Travis should never drive anything at any point.

“Sorry, Penelope,” he said, slowing down. He paused for a minute before continuing. “You never did tell me where the troublemakers went.”

“ _Agents_ Hartford and Hugh,” she said. “Are on assignment elsewhere. They aren't only part of my department. Yet.”

Travis gave an amused smile. “You complain about Kathy and Donovan all the time,” he reminded her.

“Eyes on the road, Travis!” She exclaimed and he did as she asked. “They're still my best agents. I take that back. They're my only worthwhile agents. They backtalk, cause trouble, and still manage to get the job done. I want them in my section permanently. Park over there. We can walk the rest of the way.”

He looked ready to argue with her, but shrugged. “I could use a walk,” he answered. “But we need to hurry or I'm going to miss my plane.”

“We could head back to the apartment instead,” she suggested, but gave up at his look.

“We need their help,” he said firmly. “And maybe they can fix this.”

They both walked to the Street and headed inside. Travis looked at her. “If you let me carry you...”

“Travis Fields,” she said, turning her glare on him. “I intend to have at least an ounce of my dignity left when I walk in that store!”

“They'll understand,” he tried again. “It's not like time has meaning on Sesame Street anyway. Hi Bob.”

“Hi Travis,” Bob said, looking to continue but Travis shook his head and motioned for him to follow. Best to do this with the greatest number of people around so he wouldn't have to explain it twice. Penelope ignored both of them and walked with her head held high into Hooper's store. Travis followed her with Bob. Penelope took a breath, ready to give a proper explanation that allowed her some sort of bearing when Travis got there first.

“Penelope shrunk!” He said, motioning to her.

“Travis...” she grumbled and looked at the surprised friends looking back at her. “To be more precise and right about what happened, I lost a few years.”

“You're eight,” David informed her, trying not to laugh and failing miserably.

“I'm twelve,” she said back, turning her glare at him. “I was just small for my age.”

Susan was at her side before she could continue. “What happened?”

“There was an incident at the department,” she answered. “Someone didn't do the proper procedure at containing a magic user and the entire department ended up like this. I still have all my memories and knowledge at being an adult.”

“But you're a lot smaller!” Big Bird exclaimed. It took everything for Penelope not to rub her temples.

“Yes, Big Bird. But I'm a lot smaller,” she answered instead, trying to avoid Susan's mothering gestures. At least Gordon was holding Miles. She would have thought having a baby to parent would have curbed her friend's enthusiastic mothering, but she wasn't that lucky. “I'm also perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but Travis wouldn't leave me in the apartment by myself and he has a Census Convention later. Since he refused to go if I didn't agree to come here and because I've had to listen to his happy ramblings about Math Friends Funtimeland for the past three weeks, I came here.”

“It's not called that, Penelope,” Travis said. She ignored him. She also ignored Linda's signing her own rebuke about what she nicknamed Travis' hobbies. Telly looked between them.

“How long will it last? What if you're stuck that way forever? What if you never age again?” He started and Travis quickly cut him off.

“We already checked,” he said soothingly. “It will end in a week. So, in seven days, Penelope will be back to normal.”

“But Travis,” Big Bird said, trying to do some heavy counting. “That's still six more days.”

“Hey! Great job with subtraction!” Travis said enthusiastically. “You were pretty quick about that.”

“Travis,” Penelope said. “Not. The. Time.”

“Right,” Travis said quickly. “I need to head to the airport, so I was hoping that you guys could argue with Penelope on where she'll stay while she's here for a week for me. And also keep her here for a week. Please?”

“Of course we will,” Susan reassured him. “You get to your convention and we'll take care of Penelope while you're gone.”

“I can take care of myself,” Penelope said again, looking more annoyed. She was even more annoyed that no one answered her and Mr. Hooper gave her that look that told her he didn't trust that she took care of herself normally. Travis headed over to her and pulled her into a hug. She sighed and shared it.

“Try not to cause problems?” He half-begged. Penelope gave him a look.

“I'm older than you. Stop trying to parent me,” she said firmly. Travis gave her a half smile.

“Right now,” he said. “I'm the older one. Thanks everyone! Count, you want to come to the convention? Count?”

“My guess is he's already in the car,” Luis said. Travis nodded and headed out leaving Penelope to the wolves. Sure, they were overly-loving care bear wolves, but they were still wolves right now. Sure enough, there were far too many volunteers of whom she could stay with. Fortunately, she had a plan.

“Whoa!” She exclaimed. “Look, Susan and Gordon have Miles. It's not a good idea for me to disrupt his schedule, right? And like I said, I'm smaller but I still have all my experiences and I can handle things. So, what if, as a compromise, I stay in one of the spare apartments in 123 until I'm better? It's close to Susan, Gordon, Maria, and Olivia if I need help and it still gives me the privacy I need.”

“Fair proposal,” Mr. Hooper said adding to the conversation for the first time and Penelope relaxed. Susan and Gordon both tentatively nodded and the others eventually agreed. After all, they let Big Bird do the equivalent of that. They began to file out, though she was absolutely certain that wasn't going to be the end of it and sighed. Mr. Hooper set a bag of food down in front of her and she looked at what was in there.

“There's only food I don't need to cook,” she said dryly. “You know I can make my dinner.”

“I don't trust you with the stove as an adult,” he answered, though she could see he was somewhat joking. Even though they both knew she'd most likely be fine, she also knew that her appearance right now was likely to throw him off.

“So I should just come and pick it up here before I go 'home'?” She asked.

“I thought you said you could handle yourself,” he said. She rolled her eyes.

“That was before you wouldn't let me use the stove,” she answered. He gave her a nod that reassured her that it was going to be an easy week of not having to cook. Before she could carry it back to her apartment, she moved back to let a woman inside the store. The woman looked at Mr. Hooper. “Mr. Hooper, I presume?”

Mr. Hooper's eyes narrowed slightly, but he nodded. Penelope watched. If this woman was a danger, then she shouldn't have been able to get on the Street. The woman set her things down and looked a little calmer. “The information lists you as the person in charge. I'm looking for Agent Carson.”

Penelope looked over. She shared a look with Mr. Hooper, both of them making a split second decision and Penelope spoke up. “Right here.”

The woman looked genuinely relieved, but it didn't stop Penelope's heart from racing. Normally, she was left alone on this assignment and the fact that she was diminutive wasn't helping her confidence in the matter. “You were a lot harder than the others to track down,” she scolded. “Every other agent went home, not to work.”

“Travis had to go out of town and didn't feel confident leaving me alone in the apartment,” she answered. The woman nodded.

“Well, at least someone is thinking. Agent Carson, as we've had to tell many of the other agents, we cannot let the lot of you run around on your own as children for the next week. It's both a danger to you and a liability to the organization. We have had some volunteers from other departments offer to watch several of you,” she explained.

“A foster program,” Penelope asked, looking extremely uncomfortable with the idea.

“Essentially,” she answered.

“Why can't I just stay here then?” Penelope asked, proud that she wasn't whining. This was ridiculous. She was a full-grown adult. She should not be feeling this sort of anxiety from being away from Sesame Street for seven days, more like six at this point as Big Bird had brought up.

“Agent Carson,” the woman said kindly. “I understand that your work environment is different than places, but you cannot expect the people here to take time out of their schedules to keep an eye on you.”

“We'd be happy to,” Mr. Hooper said. His voice was anything but happy. Penelope fought the urge to hide behind him. She was an adult. “We're well-versed in magic too.”

The woman looked uncertain, but she did sit down further away from Penelope. Mr. Hooper was already walking around the counter while Penelope herself hadn't moved. “I suppose that this street's history is rather remarkable in terms of adoption and guardianship. And I assume that there is experience with magic.”

“You could say that,” he answered. She glanced over at Penelope.

“And you'd be happier with this arrangement?” She asked. “Staying with Mr. Hooper?”

Penelope moved to protest that one of the others could watch her, but a slight shake of his head stopped her. “Much happier,” she said instead. The woman shrugged, pulling out the paperwork and handing it over to Mr. Hooper.

“My card is in there. Special Agent Diane Templeton,” she said. She looked at what he was writing. “Three other guardians?”

“Susan and Gordon have Miles, but they can help and Bob has a flexible schedule,” he answered. “The others are emergency contacts. Once you reach one, the rest of the Street will know.”

Agent Templeton nodded, looking it over and shaking her head. “I'm afraid I'll never be able to wrap my head around this place. Now, considering this is against procedure, I may need to drop back in unexpectedly. While I'm nearly certain you won't place Agent Carson in any danger, it's the only way that I won't have to come back here to reclaim her. Do we have an agreement, Mr. Hooper?”

Mr. Hooper nodded once. By this point, he was next to Penelope with his hands on her shoulders as the woman gathered her things. Penelope decided to be polite about it. “Thank you, Agent Templeton,” she said as sweetly as possible which Agent Templeton seemed to genuinely return. They both waited until the special agent was gone before Penelope looked at Mr. Hooper.

“I hate the 'trying to do the right thing' clause,” she informed him. “Cookie Monster was arrested, we almost lost Big Bird! Why do we even have that?!”

Mr. Hooper just let her finish her tirade and didn't bother answering. It was a loophole in the magic and there was little they could do about it. “You're going to have to stay on my couch.”

She sighed, dreams of having her own place for this week gone. “I can do that,” she said. “You could have let me suggest one of the others...”

“They weren't here,” Mr. Hooper answered. She gave a quick nod of her own. “Are you going to be alright?”

“I have some bad news for both of us,” she said. “I may have my mind, but I don't have as good of control over my emotions.”

“You handled it well enough,” he answered. “Did you get in a lot of trouble as a child?”

“I've gotten into more since I met Linda than I did as a kid,” she assured him. “We're going to have to tell them.”

“We will.”

“They'll laugh.”

“Ignore them,” he answered. “Go... go do something until it's time to go home.”

“You were going to tell me to go play,” she accused him.

“I changed it. I have work to do,” he said. She looked at him.

“I could help,” she offered. He gave her an even sterner look.

“Go face them,” he ordered. She stood up taller, ready to protest, but grabbed the bag of food he'd made up for her and stormed out. She was strategically retreating, that was all. She was an adult with a somewhat dangerous job and she was in charge of other adults which meant that she certainly wasn't obeying him. Besides, she really did have to face them sometime and they were her friends.

Sure enough, they'd seen the woman come onto the street which meant that everyone already would have known because each and every one of her friends were extremely nosy. As usual when they were failing at subtlety, as they were all pretending to be busy with different things, and she rolled her eyes, taking in the chance to not have to hide all of her emotions like usual.

“Well, I guess I don't have to tell any of you anything,” she said.

“You're staying with Mr. Hooper?” Maria asked. There was the start of the soon to be game of 20 questions. At least Maria wasn't pretending she hadn't been eavesdropping.

“Mr. Hooper has been kind enough to let me stay with him so I didn't have to leave Sesame Street for a week,” she answered. “Bob, Gordon, and Susan count as other guardians.”

“Why aren't the rest of us?” David asked, sounding put out.

“Because I'm older than you!” Penelope answered, putting her hands on her hips.

“You're eight,” David told her again.

“I'm twelve, just small for my age, and I'm normally a lot older than that. As Travis brought up, time doesn't match earth's time here. It's a scientific quandary or magic or something that Travis was saying when he knew I was too busy to listen to what he was going on about. The point is, I may not know how old I'm supposed to be anymore, but I do know that I'm still older than you, Luis, Maria, Linda, and Olivia!”

Linda looked over at Maria who went to David while she went over to Penelope. _“We can still help.”_

Penelope sighed, signing as she talked and feeling a little bad for not doing it when she'd been talking to David. She also noticed that she wasn't able to sign as fluidly as she had as an adult due to a lack of muscle memory working for her. “I know you can. And I appreciate it. But I'm not child. I'm still me. And I just had to give up my idea that I could still be alone like an adult because my own superiors don't trust us to not be children. I'm tired, I feel unbalanced, and I can't even go home.”

“Give us a day to get used to it,” Maria suggested. “We'll try to be use to it by then, right guys?”

The others quickly agree with her and Penelope gave them a soft smile. “Can you stop Susan from mothering me over the next week?” She asked. Bob gave off a small laugh.

“We can't do miracles,” he teased. She felt a bit better but she was more than pleased when Mr. Hooper came to collect her on the way home and she was able to get some time more alone.

 

***

She was glad when Mr. Hooper didn't try to force her to eat, though she was guessing that would change tomorrow, as well as not pushing her to go to bed at a certain time. She still went to bed at a reasonable time as to not destroy her normal schedule and tried to feel less frustrated over the entire event. This couldn't be easy for Mr. Hooper either considering that he was stuck with her for a full week. She couldn't imagine he appreciated the situation even if he'd volunteered. Granted, she was grateful he had. Having one of the younger Protectors watch over her would have been even worse since she was, in fact, older than them. Bob might have been the best option, but considering that couples on this street seemed to think that hiding behind a tree was a good hiding place to make-out, she was a bit worried in that regard. Susan and Gordon, even without Miles, would have ended up trying to parent her due to her apparent age.

“I know you're up,” Mr. Hooper said as he headed into the room. She pretended like she wasn't. “I can nearly hear you thinking.”

She lifted the blankets and looked at him seriously. “Are you telepathic? Because it would make sense for why you seem to know everything and I should make a note in your file.”

“No,” he answered, rolling his eyes. “I'm smart enough to know that getting your body changed around and having less control would make anyone upset.”

She pulled herself into a sitting position. “I wasn't even involved. I was picking up a few things so I didn't have to stop by the office while Travis was gone and that wizard picked that time to break free and curse the entire office,” she said ignoring the fact that she was indeed pouting. “I had to call Travis to get me out of there and get me more age appropriate clothes. And I can't even just hide at home until it's all over.”

Mr. Hooper looked at her. “I've known you for years, Penelope. You don't hide. You charge your way through, you talk when you need to, and you solve your problems.”

“Right now, I don't feel like that Penelope,” she admitted. “It's embarrassing.”

“I don't think you'd hide from that,” he informed her.

“And I'm terrified,” she finally admitted, knowing full well that was what he'd been waiting for her to admit. “What if it lasts longer than a week? What if they decide that I can't stay here? What if I don't age at all from this point on?”

Mr. Hooper sat down. “Then we will handle it together,” he answered. “And you aren't going with them.”

She looked at him in surprise. “That could cause a lot of trouble.”

“That's on them,” he answered. “Tomorrow, we'll see if Gordon and Susan still have that spare apartment.”

She looked at him in surprise. “I thought I had to stay here,” she said.

“At night, you do,” he answered. “But I think having a place to go when you need a breather is healthy. And this way, I'll know where you ran to.”

“Thank you,” she said honestly.

“Now stop thinking about it and go to sleep,” he said, heading back to his own room.

“Good night, Mr. Hooper,” she called out.

“Good _night_ , Penelope,” he answered. She smiled a bit at the emphasis and tried to fall asleep.

**Day 2**

Penelope woke up before Mr. Hooper and got to work getting the various toppings out for bagels and doing the prep work. She toasted them and finished getting them ready before she heard the bedroom door open. “Good morning, Mr. Hooper,” she said, holding it out for him.

“Good morning,” he said. “Thank you.”

She nodded and sat down to eat hers as he joined her. They ate in a companionable silence before heading out for the morning. As Mr. Hooper went to his store, Penelope figured she would get use to her body size by walking around the neighborhood. She was rather quickly able to adjust to her size so when Big Bird invited her into a game of tag, she happily joined in. She was able to dodge the other kids well enough but she could feel her balance was still off. “Got you, Penelope!” Big Bird called out, tagging her. She felt her balance slip and crashed to the ground.

“Penelope! Susan!” Big Bird called out as Penelope tried to pick herself up.

“Big Bird, it's fine,” she tried to reassure him.

“You're bleeding,” he told her and she looked down to see she'd skinned her knee. She moved to protest when she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Bob's worried, yet somewhat amused face.

“Set a good example,” Bob told her playfully in a rather apt impression of Susan. Penelope sighed.

“Let's go talk to Susan,” she grumbled. Bob helped her to her feet and Olivia was suddenly on her other side.

“Do you think anything is broken?” She asked. Penelope shook her head.

“Just a little fall,” she said. “But if it gets the kids to go to Susan when they need it...”

Olivia nodded, understanding the need to go along with things for that very reason. She glanced up. “I don't think we're going to need to go to Susan.”

Big Bird was dragging Susan back with him as Gordon followed holding Miles. He was babbling on about what had happened and Susan was nodding as what, Penelope was guessing, were the appropriate times. Gordon and Bob shifted his attention a bit so that Susan could get in closer. Penelope offered her a smile. “I tripped.”

“Big Bird said he pushed you?” She asked. Penelope shook her head.

“He barely touched me. You don't have to worry about any extra pressure,” she answered. “Just gravity. I'm fine, Big Bird! Susan, tell him I'm fine.”

“It's just a scratch,” Susan agreed. “We'll get it cleaned up and it'll be fine.”

Big Bird calmed down and Penelope gave him a smile. “Why don't you guys go play? I think I'm going to sit out for a while,” she said. “I'm fine. I just need a break.”

“Okay,” Big Bird said. “If you're sure you're okay.”

“I'm sure,” she answered. Big Bird and the kids took off and Penelope relaxed a bit. “Oww! Susan!”

“You don't want it to get infected, do you?” Susan chided.

“It was a little cut,” Penelope protested. “Couldn't we just slap a band-aid on it and move on?”

Susan glanced over at Bob who looked a little sheepish. “I convinced her to come to you to set a good example,” he offered. “She's here.”

“Penelope, it's not a good example if you don't let me check you over!” Susan protested.

“They aren't even watching anymore,” she answered. “I'm fine.”

Gordon looked over at Olivia who could easily see the storm brewing as quickly as her brother could and took Miles, heading back inside. Gordon made his way over to Susan, glancing at Bob who made his own way to be next to both of them. Gordon glanced at Penelope and then looked at Susan. “I think she'll be okay,” Gordon said gently.

“Then what does it hurt getting it checked out?” Susan asked. Penelope folded her arms.

“It matters,” she said. “Because we all wouldn't be sitting here if I was older.”

“But you're not older right now,” Susan said. “And we don't know what will happen if you have an injury that would last longer than a week.”

Bob looked away while Gordon just sighed. It was clear to Penelope they'd been discussing this so she focused her attention on the woman talking to her. “What would that matter?” She asked.

“A bone breaking takes time to heal,” Susan said. “If you break something that you didn't break when you were this age, it's possible that when you turn back into an adult, it might not heal right.”

Penelope paused and gave a sharp nod. She looked at Bob. “'Set a good example for the kids?!' What happened to 'Communication is important for friendship'?” She snapped. At his hurt look, she sighed. She wasn't thrilled, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings either. “Sorry. Just tell me the truth next time.”

Bob sat down next to her. “It not that I didn't want to tell you. But I didn't want to scare Big Bird and the other kids,” he answered.

She nodded at that. “He wouldn't have understood, would he? I wouldn't have take it well if I really was eight.”

“I thought you were twelve,” Gordon said with a grin. Penelope brought her leg up to look at it, making certain that it was covered.

“I really was a small kid,” she answered. “But I'm probably actually closer to ten. Maybe eleven. Is there anything else you're hiding from me?”

“No,” Gordon said and smiled at her. “You're taking this well.”

“It's not like any of us have had a chance to adjust which means you haven't had long to think about it or tell me,” she answered. She felt Bob pulling her to him and let him do it. After all, she really had probably hurt his feelings so letting him hug her wasn't too much to ask. “And it's a valid worry. I'll add it to the pile.”

Susan looked at her worriedly. “What else are you worried about?”

“Whether or not this will end in a week. And what happens if it doesn't,” she answered. After admitting it to Mr. Hooper, she figured she should probably tell her other 'guardians'. The fact that they were also like her older siblings was just secondary and was not the actual reason she was telling them because she needed their support and comfort.

“You can move in with Gordon and me,” Susan offered. “If it happens.”

“You guys have Miles,” she said. “And if we don't know how long this lasts, then I don't want to confuse him. I just...”

Bob squeezed her tighter as Susan hugged her from the other side. Gordon knelt down so she could see him. “We wouldn't let anything happen to you if you were able to protect yourself,” he said. “So right now, we're going to be overprotective and I don't care if it annoys you because we are not about to lose you when you need us.”

“Thank you,” Penelope said, trying to ignore the hitch in her throat. She forced it back and looked at Susan and Gordon. “How's parenting going?”

Both of their eyes lit up as they went into the various ins and outs of parenthood while Bob and she laughed. For a moment, she could almost forget that she was half their size.

**Day 3**

Maria, Linda, and Olivia caught up with Mr. Hooper and Penelope almost as soon as they were out of the building. Maria was apparently the designated spokeswoman for the morning as the other two just backed her up. “We were thinking that we could take Penelope shopping for more clothes.”

Mr. Hooper looked at her and then at them. “She'll only be this way for five more days,” he reminded them. “I'm not sure it's worth taking her off Sesame Street for that.”

“That's still five more days,” Olivia pressed. “Come on, Mr. Hooper. It'll be good for her.”

“I'm standing right here. Still. Adult in a child's body who is capable of making her own choices,” she said. “And I need to do something, Mr. Hooper. This sounds like it will work.”

Mr. Hooper looked at them each in turn as he spoke. “I'm responsible for her. Do not get into trouble. Come back if there's trouble,” he said. “And make sure she's back for dinner.”

“I'm still right here,” she said. “When I get bigger again, I am definitely making sure I don't talk over the kids.”

Mr. Hooper gave her a look. “Don't do anything silly,” he instructed her.

“You're not going to tell me to listen to them?” Penelope asked.

“I'm counting on you to keep an eye on them,” he answered. Penelope looked amused back at him.

“Got it,” she answered. She turned to the other three women. “Let's go.”

“Did Mr. Hooper just put the kid in charge of us?” Olivia asked and Penelope rolled her eyes again.

“Mr. Hooper remembers I'm older than all of you,” she answered. “And the least likely to get us all arrested.”

“We've never been arrested,” Maria reminded her.

“Yet,” Penelope said. “And it's hard for me to get us all out of jail when I look like I'm still in school.”

_“Her dad asked us to stay out of trouble, so we stay out of trouble.”_ Linda signed with an amused smile. The fact that that wouldn't have stopped Linda on a normal day didn't help at all. Penelope put as much emphasis as she could behind both the sign language and the verbal statement.

“He's not my father!”

***

“I'll admit I feel better,” Penelope informed the other three as she looked through the clothes. “It just feels better not wearing the same two outfits Travis bought. He did fine, but he was also panicking.”

Linda looked over at her and smiled affectionately. _“If Travis was panicking, he should offer to be a personal shopper. I wouldn't have guessed.”_

“How did that go down, Penelope?” Olivia asked. “Hey Travis! I got turned into a kid! Can you get me a dress?”

“A little more subtle than that,” Penelope answered. “And I used the term 'age-appropriate' for a reason. The tiny suit I was wearing didn't really fit right.”

“At least the clothes shrunk with you,” Maria said, tossing another outfit on the pile before translating what she'd said to Linda. Linda nodded in agreement. “And now I know who to call in a clothing emergency.”

“Get your own slightly neurotic roommate,” Penelope teased. Other than the clothes, she felt like an adult again. She tried on the clothes, chose five outfits, and carried them to cashier. The cashier looked over her and Penelope sighed.

“So which of you is paying today?” She asked.

“I am,” Penelope said, standing on her tip-toes and feeling utterly ridiculous for it.

“That's cute. So, your mom can handle it?” the cashier said, glancing in Linda's direction. Penelope tried for some inner calm. The cashier was probably having a bad day.

“Like I said, I'm paying. Hold on. I have the cash,” she said. She began to dig through her purse when she heard the cashier talking above her to Linda.

“Look, I understand that you want your daughter to learn responsibility, but I really need to get this done. Can't she just pay you back?” She asked. Maria and Olivia's annoyance was something she could almost feel. Penelope sighed and stood back up, glancing at several of the other cashiers and stock people who just looked resigned over the whole thing. Well, there went the bad day idea.

“Unless you're using sign language,” Penelope said, giving Maria a pleading look to translate for Linda so she could get the money out. Maria was already obliging. “She's deaf. That means she can't hear you.”

“LOOK...” the woman started and Penelope slammed her wallet down. Ignoring her was one thing, but no one disrespected her 'little sisters'.

“This may surprise you. But deaf means she can't hear. At all. Ever. No matter how ridiculous you make yourself look trying to yell. The only good part about it is that Linda can see that you look ludicrous but she doesn't have to listen to you. And for the record, she's not my mom,” Penelope said, deciding that she'd already jumped in to the deep end of the pool so she may as well make it count. The woman looked at Maria and Olivia before looking back at her.

“Really,” she said dryly.

“Really!” Penelope said, dropping the annoying and putting forth a sickening sweet attitude. She ignored the warning looks from all three of the adults who brought her here. She pointed to Olivia. “She's Mom.”

Then to Maria. “She's Mama.”

“And...” She finally back to Linda where she made the sign for 'Mother'.

The cashier just stared at her and then at the three women. “But she still was the one who gave birth to you...?” The cashier asked.

Penelope pretended to look like she was thinking about it. “I don't know. I never asked,” she answered in the most cheerful tone she could manage. Knowing that the woman was going to be sidelined for a moment trying to adjust, Penelope quickly took advantage of the situation now that the woman wasn't able to speak. “Here's the money!” 

She reached over to take Olivia's hand and took it, smirking at the cashier, and Maria's in her other one. Linda needed her hands in case she had to sign after all. The bag of clothes felt heavy around her wrist, but she wasn't about to ruin the image. Once they were out of the store, Olivia looked at her as both of the older women let go so that they could all sign while they spoke. “I think that bag is hurting you arm, _sweetheart_.”

“Does that mean you want to carry it, _Mom_?” She asked.

“No, I was going to volunteer your mama for that one,” Olivia answered.

“Hey!” Maria called out. She looked at Penelope. “That's what you decided on?”

“She shut up long enough for me to pay,” Penelope answered. Maria looked sympathetic.

“She shouldn't have treated you...” she started and Penelope looked at her.

“That annoyed me, but she was being rude to Linda,” Penelope said, deciding to change the subject. “I suppose now isn't the best time to suggest getting some ice cream?”

“And Mr. Hooper thought we'd be the troublemakers,” Olivia said, sounding downright amused. Penelope shrugged.

“I'll break my normal rule of how none of us are actually parents on Sesame Street and you can all have Mother's Day cards this year. But only if we get ice cream,” she said. Linda shrugged.

_“I'll pay._ She signed.

“And now we know which of you is my favorite parent,” Penelope said and headed toward the ice cream booth. Olivia leaned over to Maria.

“I thought she'd be easier to handle as a kid,” she mentioned.

“I think we know why Susan banned spy games now,” Maria answered. “And I have even more respect for Mr. Hooper.”

None of them mentioned any of it to any of of the other members on Sesame Street. Still, the look that Mr. Hooper gave all of them caused Penelope to think that he just wasn't going to bring it up. She understood. She'd had to discipline her own agents and when Kathy and Donovan were involved, she had to pick the most light punishment she could think of so it didn't look like she was encouraging them. After all, when they did it, normally, it was for a good reason. She had the feeling that Mr. Hooper was doing the same.

**Day 4**

The apartment that they'd gotten for her was great other than the fact that it bare. Susan and Gordon had both suggested decorating it, but Penelope had informed them that at the end of the week, it was theirs again and she didn't see the point in having to change it back. She had spent time in it to help her adjust when she needed some time alone. She'd done so right after shopping the day before, right after checking to see if Mr. Hooper was going to push the issue, to try to help herself remember that she'd been acting and help herself focus on being an adult.

Still, while she enjoyed the solitude, she needed to move around a bit. And she needed off the Street for a minute or two. Sure, she'd gone out with Maria, Linda, and Olivia, but she just wanted to go on a nice walk and clear her head. She headed out of the building and toward the edge of the street before finding herself walking back toward 123. She paused and tried again, finding herself doing the same. She tried the other side of the street to no avail. After a minute, she stopped trying and looked up. It's not like she could direct her focus at a certain magic part, so she generalized it. “Are you kidding me?!” She yelled at the force field. “You know I'm an adult! You are made of pure magic! Now stop it!”

She tried again but the same thing happened. The only thing that she found to be amazing was that the kids would never know it was affecting them. All she felt was as if the force field had gently turned her around and given her a push in the other direction. It was more than the kids probably felt because she was looking for it. “Come on! I just want to go on a walk! I wouldn't even go that far! Stop arguing with me and let me through!” It didn't. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Luis.

“Penelope?” He asked.

“Did you guys tell it to do that?” She demanded.

“Uh... tell what to do what?” He asked. “Penelope, are you okay?”

“I'm fine!” She said, pulling away. “I just... need a time out.”

She raced off, ignoring Luis calling after her as she raced toward and into the building and making her way up into the apartment. She sat down and focused on calming exercises. She barely heard the door open.

“You scared Luis,” Mr. Hooper said after a minute and she looked at him.

“I'll apologize later,” she said tightly, trying to wrangle her emotions.

“Take your time,” he assured her. “And no, we didn't ask the forcefield to keep you in. Mostly because I thought you'd know better.”

“I just wanted to go for a walk,” she said, her voice starting to crack. “A small one. It has to know my real age.”

“It protects the street, Penelope,” he answered.

“I've seen it let other kids my supposed age leave,” she said. She was trying to focus on a spot on the floor to ground herself. “It's because of what Agent Templeton said, isn't it? That if she came back at that point she might think I needed to leave? I'm still not a child!”

“I thought you were doing better,” Mr. Hooper told her, focusing on her tone rather than her words telling Penelope she'd been right. The force field was forgetting that she wasn't actually part of the Street again. “You've been getting worse, haven't you?”

“I thought you knew everything,” she said.

“Do you remember that year that Big Bird tried staying awake for Santa?” He asked. “I didn't know where he was then. And I didn't know much you were hurting now.”

“I don't want to talk about it,” she muttered. Mr. Hooper looked at her.

“You ran up here in a panic,” he reminded her. “Half of the street wants to check on you.”

She swallowed. “I don't feel like me,” she said, deciding it was better to admit this to him than all of them. “And sometimes I forget that I am older even if it's just for a few minutes. We don't know what's normal or not. We don't know what will carry over when I turn back. And I know I'm going to sound like petulant child, but it's not fair! I didn't do anything to him! That wasn't even near my section! I haven't carried a weapon in over twenty years let alone been involved in an arrest! I was even trying to get ahead in work. And I know I didn't do anything to deserve this and that it wasn't personal and that makes it almost worse. If it was personal, I could accept that I'd done something at least.”

“You're right,” he told her. “But if you need to be mad about it, be mad.”

She looked at him in confusion. “Are you telling me to throw a fit?”

“I'm telling you,” he said. “That you're trying to stop a child's emotions with grown-up logic and it's not working.”

“If I let go, I won't be able to stop,” she said.

“You're making yourself sick,” he told her.

“You won't tell anyone?” She asked. He walked over and shut the door. Then he nodded in agreement. She felt the first couple of tears fall and turned away as he walked over and sat next to her as the tears eventually turned into gut-clenching wails.

“Let it out,” he told her. She listened until she was tired and worn out and quite frankly out of tears.

“I look like a mess,” she said quietly.

“You look fine,” he answered. “I'm going to go get a towel from Susan. The water for the shower should be working. Same with the sink.”

She nodded, stumbling into the bathroom to wash her face. Once he'd returned with the towel, she took a shower while he went to tell their family something or another. The point was, he was handling it and she could focus on getting herself back together. Once she was out the door, Gordon was waiting for her. She looked at him in surprise.

“I'm supposed to get you to the family meeting,” he said.

“We don't have family meetings,” she answered.

“We do,” he said. “We've had them before and you refused to come.”

“I hate family meetings,” she muttered.

“Sorry, Penelope, but you don't get a choice this time,” he told her. She was not expecting to have said family meeting in Susan and Gordon's apartment but she figured she probably shouldn't be too surprised. “Family” in this case meant the human Protectors which she was grateful for. She wasn't sure she could deal with Oscar right now, the Count was out of town, and she would have felt a little awkward if Bert and Ernie as well as any of the children or monsters were there. Mr. Macintosh and Willy both verbally checked to see if she was okay as she walked in the room. She assured them she was. They all took a few minutes of small talk, which she used to head over to Luis.

“I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier. You didn't do anything wrong,” she said.

“No te preocupes,” he assured her, giving her a quick one-armed hug. She leaned into it before pulling away. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” she said honestly. “But a little better. Why do we have to have a family meeting?”

“Because someone ran through Sesame Street and scared us,” he teased.

“I'm better now,” she offered. “We don't need to have a family meeting... do we always have that much fruit at family meetings?”

“Go,” he said and she reached over and squeezed his hand before rushing over to the fruit.

“I think she took half of it,” Willy teased.

“At least she's eating,” Mr. Macintosh joked to Willy. Penelope glanced over.

“You have the best fruit,” she answered back with a smile. “And I'm technically still growing.”

“I wish I could use that excuse,” Maria said, plucking one of the piece off Penelope's place before the latter could stop her. She scowled at the woman as Maria just grinned.

“If all of you stunt her appetite...” Susan warned, steering Penelope back toward where she was sitting with Gordon. Gordon handled her a piece of cake to go with it.

“Mr. Hooper mentioned you were worrying a bit about a couple of things,” Gordon said, quieting the room. Penelope nodded, counting on her de facto guardian to have kept quiet about her breakdown.

“Specifically when the spell ends and what happens if it doesn't. Or even if it does,” she answered. This was her family and trying to keep things from them ended up panicking the entire street. She continued forward, taking in Mr. Hooper, Susan, and Gordon's encouraging looks. She knew the others would look the same and paused, looking over to see that Bob was already translating for Linda and both of them gave her a reassuring smile. Good then. She could hold on to the plate and try to keep herself more still. It would help her get through this. “In three days, I'm supposed to turn back into an adult, but what if they're wrong? What if this is more permanent? And what if when they come to check in, they decide to try to find me a permanent place to live instead. At this point, I'm a ward of theirs so they can do that.”

“We won't let them take you anywhere,” Gordon said. “We already talked about this before you came down.”

She looked confused and then at Susan. The older woman was already mothering her a bit which Penelope normally would have protested, but right now, she even knew she needed it. “You showed us the paperwork for Big Bird,” she reminded her. “We'll just do the same for you.”

She blinked and looked over at the others who were each nodding and then back at Mr. Hooper who met her eye. She felt herself calming a bit but there was still one problem. “You can't put the Street at risk for one person.”

“It's not at risk,” Mr. Hooper told her.

“It will just be an interesting day,” Luis said helpfully.

“What if it was one of us? Or Travis?” Bob asked. She was guessing that trying to argue that that was different would get her no where.

“How many times did she go over the paperwork for Miles?” Olivia asked her brother. “Fifteen? Sixteen?”

“Thirty-four,” Gordon said.

“I looked over it twelve times,” she said, arms folded. “I made Travis look over it the other twenty-two times because he's better at that sort of thing.”

“And your 'assistance' with Big Bird's kidnappers?” Mr. Hooper asked.

“They didn't have to take me up on it. I simply had some words with the two of them and they decided that they felt very bad about it and should plead guilty,” she said easily.

“You know, that explanation sounds even scarier when you're saying it when you're eight,” David told her.

“I'm twelve,” she answered, folding her arms at her, but matching his grin. “And I don't know what you're talking about.”

“If we do end up having to adopt her, I'm taking her to court with me,” David said. The look Penelope gave him assured him that she would be more than happy to help him even as an adult.

“Stop trying to win court cases by having Penelope terrify them,” Susan said.

“I don't mind,” Penelope said helpfully. The look that was shared between David and Penelope was a solid agreement that they would happily do it behind Gordon and Susan's backs if necessary.

“I do,” Susan said.

“Well, if you do have to adopt me,” Penelope said, ignoring Susan. “I guess I'll have to start writing out mother and father's day cards. Travis will be on the paperwork too, right?”

“I don't think we could stop him if we tried,” Gordon said with a grin.

_“And as soon as you think of a name for Susan, you're already set on what on what to call your 'mothers'. You're going to need a lot more names for your 'fathers' though.”_ Linda told her.

Susan looked directly at Penelope. “Why would you already have that figured out?” She asked.

“Good planning,” Penelope said back easily.

“But none of this will be needed,” Mr. Hooper said. “Because you will turn back in three days.”

His self-assured tone helped to calm her further. All of the joking aside, she did feel better about the situation, but she felt even more reassured by Mr. Hooper's tone. She sat back and enjoyed the rest of the family meeting, resolving that she should probably stop trying to avoid them.

**Day 5**

After the meeting, she had taken an hour out of the next morning to decide what she wanted to do. She knew that if Travis had gone through this, he would have been out and wanting to play with Big Bird and the other kids. Right after he was done soaking up the parental attention he would have gotten from the other adults. She, on the other hand, didn't mind doing that as often as she did as an adult, but she had no interest in reliving her childhood. That said, there was one kid that she had been meaning to spend more time with and hadn't to give his parents time to adjust to being parents. Thus, she found herself in front of Gordon and Susan.

“I'd like to baby-sit Miles,” she said, trying to stand up to her full height. She really needed to ask Linda how she managed to be so short and still fill the room. Susan and Gordon looked at each other before Gordon turned back to her.

“That's fine, Penelope, but I'm a little worried if you can physically handle him. Can you pick him up?” He asked. Penelope paused.

“Let's find out while you two are here,” she suggested. “If I can't, then we won't worry about it until after I'm an adult again. If I can physically handle it, will you let me?”

“I don't see why not,” Susan agreed. Within a few minutes, it was clear that Penelope would be fine doing so and it wasn't like there wouldn't be an abundance of help if she was having physical trouble. “We're going to go see a movie. Are you sure you're going to be okay?”

“As sure as I would be if I was fully-grown,” she answered. “You both told me that I was Miles' family too so...”

“She'll be fine,” Gordon reassured Susan. “And can call Bob or Hooper's if she needs to.”

Susan pulled her into a hug. “Thank you,” she said.

“Thanks for trusting me,” she answered back. With that, both parents headed off and Penelope turned to Miles who was just looking at her. “Hi Miles. I'm Penelope.”

She reached down and picked him up out of his cradle, setting him on the floor so he could move around. She sat down next to him. “I probably should have come by sooner, huh?”

Miles looked at her before babbling at the floor and handing her a toy. Penelope took it from him, giving it back when he reached for it again. “I'm not the best at this family thing, but you're going to be great at it. You have two great parents and you're living in the best place in the world. You're going to learn all of the right things and have all of the right people teaching you. How many times have they already tried to teach you your ABCs, huh?”

Miles just babbled again, but Penelope choose to believe that he was listening. “And you'll learn lots of languages like Spanish or Honker. And you'll learn to sign. And if you ever get into any trouble, then you can just tell me and I'll fix it, okay? If you ever need anything, you can come to me and we'll figure it out. Like I said, I'm not the best at the whole family thing, but we'll get better at it together. Deal?”

Miles handed her a toy. She considered that to be a yes. She pulled out a book and let him crawl into her lap, reading to him until he fell asleep for his nap. When Susan and Gordon got back, she stayed for a while longer just to talk and to let Miles put all of his toys in her lap for no real reason.

**Day 6**

One day, she needed to find out what sort of dog Barkley was and where he came from because he was very soft and she was very comfortable laying on him at the moment to which part of her wanted a Barkley of her own. Mr. Hooper had banned her from his home until dinnertime which meant that he was planning something special. Out of all of them, Mr. Hooper was the most capable of being subtle, but only when he cared to be. At least he wasn't trying to surprise her.

The others had been just as bad. Mr. Macintosh had set aside some of her favorite fruits for her to buy. Willy had talked with her about how Big Bird had been as a smaller bird. Maria and Luis had thanked her for helping them with carrying some of the toasters into the shop as well as for distracting Telly and Big Bird so they could finish them. She'd stopped by Bob's apartment just to listen to the music a bit and had enjoyed some lemonade while he sang. She'd gone walking Barkley with Linda before she had laid down with him now. Susan and Gordon had 'subtly' checked up on her. She'd spent some time talking with Olivia. Finally, she'd gotten herself kicked out of Hooper's for the afternoon when David and she had been playfully jabbing at each other until Mr. Hooper had had enough. She was pretty sure he would have made David leave too, but he needed him to run the store for him.

She felt the shadow over her and looked up before scrambling to her feet which woke up Barkley. “Agent Templeton,” she said quickly.

“Agent Carson,” the other woman stated. “Having a lazy day?”

“Just a bit of one,” she admitted. “Did you need anything in particular?”

“I needed to come check to see how things are going,” she answered. “Is someone supposed to be keeping an eye on you?”

“They all do,” Penelope answered, heading toward Hooper's. “But David is the closest right now.”

“One of the emergency contacts, right?” Agent Templeton asked, letting her colleague lead. “There were quite a few of them.”

“Right,” Penelope answered. “He helps run Hooper's Store. Mr. Hooper and I are pretending like I don't know he's making a special dinner tonight so David is watching over things.”

“And you.”

“Well, it's probably his turn to keep an eye on me anyway,” Penelope answered. “Hi David. This is Agent Templeton.”

David looked at Penelope and then back at the other agent. “Hi. You're not going to try to take Penelope, are you?”

“I wasn't intending to,” Agent Templeton said, glancing at Penelope who was managing not to put her head in her hands. “I just needed to go over a few things and it would be good to have an active adult here in case she forgets. I'd normally push for it to be one of her temporary guardians, but I'm starting to understand that 'emergency contact' is Sesame Street speak for 'We thought having over four listed guardians might make Agent Templeton suspicious'.”

David looked over at Penelope. “She's pretty smart.”

“I'm thinking so too,” Penelope agreed. “So, what's the procedure?”

David was leaning against the counter as he listened and Penelope was wondering if his plan to to try to jump over it if anything happened. “What should happen is that it should be worn off when you wake up tomorrow. If nothing changes by three in the afternoon, when the incident happened, then you should give me a call. I'll drive out and we'll check to make certain to see what needs to happen next in terms of curse control,” she said and looked at David. “If it takes longer, I'm assuming she can remain here for the duration?”

“We weren't considering any other option,” David said.

“Good,” she said “In that case, there should be no pain, your clothes should grow with you, and we'll expect you to report in to let us know that you are normal sized again. If everything goes smoothly, I won't need to come back. I mean this with deep respect, Agent Carson, but I'm hoping not to see you again.”

“Not as much as I'm hoping to never see you,” Penelope said, grinning. “But I'm putting a statement in my file for you to be my contact if anything like this happens again.”

“I'll take care of it,” she assured her. She leaned over and shook David's hand as well. “Thank you for your assistance.”

“Is there anything we need to do?”

“Just make sure she isn't too confused. Brain fog is normal for the first ten minutes, but it should pass after that. If it looks like it hasn't, ask her things to test her memory,” she said. With that, she took off. David looked at Penelope.

“Can we trust her?” He asked.

“As well as we can trust any agent,” Penelope answered. He gave her a look.

“We trust you,” he reminded her. “And Bob said that happened pretty quickly.”

“If I didn't know Mr. Hooper like I do, I'd be worried how well you all trust me,” she answered. “I don't think she'll be any trouble though.”

David nodded. “Can you get her on your team? Travis says that the two you have right now are trouble.”

“And you'll love them. I sent them to go find Big Bird and they handled it well. They might just work out,” she said. “Which will be a nice change of pace until they meet all of you and I have to deal with even more trouble.”

“You get into trouble with us,” David reminded her. She snorted.

“Not often,” she answered. “And you're lucky when I do considering how you guys miss things at times.”

“Like what?” he demanded.

“How's your relationship with Maria?” She asked.

“Fine.”

“How's it going with her working with Luis?”

“They do a great job together.”

“And your relationship with Luis?”

“We went to the movies the other day to hang out. We thought we'd go with Bob next time. Why?” He asked. Penelope just stared at him. She didn't care what Susan said. They were never going to catch on and notice that they were all in love with each other. And if Maria and Linda weren't dating, it was only because of respect toward their partners. Susan had warned her to stay out of it, but Penelope was absolutely certain that they would never get together anyway unless someone gathered neon signs that screamed they loved each other.

“No reason,” she said dryly before muttering on her way out. “Out of all the siblings in the world and I get group who can't read each other.”

“Penelope?”

“I'm going to go find Barkley,” she answered. “I'm not supposed to be in the store right now.”

David nodded and then shrugged, getting back to work. Penelope tracked down Barkley down and used sign to convince him to lay down resulting in another nap. She fell back asleep on him for a while enjoying his company. At least Barkley seemed to understand what she told him.

***

The apartment spelled wonderful when she finally was allowed in for the night. She looked over at him in amusement. “What did you make?”

“Kreplach,” he answered. She raised her eyebrows.

“You said that we only could have that during special occasions like Purim,” she said. “And that no matter how many times I 'suggested' it you weren't going to break that.”

“I said special occasions,” he answered. “This is a special occasion. Are you going to complain all night or can we eat?”

She obediently sat down at the table as the two partook in dinner. She took a couple of bites and looked at him. “So, if this doesn't fix itself...”

“Penelope...”

“If it doesn't, you should probably get a second room. Your couch isn't very comfortable after three nights,” she told him.

“Travis will be back then. He can keep you,” Mr. Hooper said. At her almost wounded look, he continued. “You can spend the night when he pushes too hard.”

“So every night,” she said dryly.

“You live with him now,” he reminded her.

“Travis is my best friend,” she answered. “To the point where he's said that any partner he ends up having will have to accept just how connected we are. He also will be the first to treat me like I'm five. It would be every night. How about a better couch?”

“I'm not encouraging you to live in my apartment,” he said. There was a pause. “We can get a pillow or two. For when you visit.”

She nodded. “I get to help pick out the pillows.”

“We won't need to get them because you'll be an adult tomorrow,” he told her.

“We still should probably get them,” she said. “You're in charge of a supernatural street protected by a force field. I'm an agent in a Supernatural agency. The chances of one or the other of us not getting turned into a cat or something at some point is pretty low.”

“A cat?” He asked.

“Don't worry. I'll make sure you have your milk and chicken dinner are separate,” she told him. He gave her a look which she promptly ignored.

“We'll get the pillows,” he said instead. She just beamed.

**Day 7**

Penelope woke up on the floor. She wasn't sure why she was on the floor considering that she'd slept just fine on that stupid couch before, but she was indeed on the floor. Worse, Mr. Hooper was standing in the doorway looking at her in amusement which meant that she had recently ended up on the floor and managed to wake him. He did helped her to her feet, however, and she was pleased to be taller than him again. She looked herself over the best she could before getting up to use the mirror. She relaxed at her own adult reflection. She found herself able to contain the burst of glee that rushed through her but she still was beaming when she turned around to see Mr. Hooper smiling at her.

“Welcome back,” he said. She moved over and pulled him into a quick hug before pulling away shyly.

“Thank you,” she said. “For all of this. For letting me stay here. For reassuring me. For reminding me that I couldn't hide for a week...”

“You would have figured it out,” he said. She paused for a minute, trying to figure out what to say.

“Travis thinks it's rude that I don't get your a father's day card,” she mentioned.

“It's not,” he answered. “We're not going to encourage them.”

She relaxed at that. “Good.”

“And the fact that you manage to cook and bring over babka every year and leave it on my counter when I'm not home is impressive,” he informed her.

“I wanted to make sure you knew it was from me.”

“A card would do that.”

“It's tradition now,” she said. “I'm going to head out. I need to have some time to myself before Travis gets home. Thanks again.”

Mr. Hooper brushed it off. “Penelope,” he said, causing her to turn around. “We'll get the pillows tomorrow.”

“I'll set some time aside in my schedule,” she answered and headed out the door with a polite wave. She knew she'd be stopped several times on the way off Sesame Street, but that thought didn't bother her a bit. They'd been worried and she could take a minute to reassure them before she got back to her apartment and enjoyed being alone for the rest of the day.

**Epilogue**

Penelope made her way to the street as quickly as possible. They'd reassured her several times that it was temporary and would be fixed soon. She had ignored both of them. She knew that Gordon and Travis were trying to make sure that she didn't disobey several traffic laws which was sweet but she knew how to drive quickly without harming anyone. She wasn't Travis.

She bolted out of her car once in was parked and made her way through the street until she reached a young girl. The girl looked up at her and she recognized the same defeated look she'd had a year before. Penelope just held out her arms and let Maria come to her. “We will fix this,” she said. She gave a sardonic smile as she pulled her away to look at her. “And because of my accident last year, we have a plan.”

“I can't even cross the street, Penelope,” she said miserably.

“What happened?” Penelope asked.

“Mumford,” Maria answered. That was all Penelope needed to know. Of course it was Mumford.

“If he can't fix this,” Penelope said, secretly doubting he could. “Then I will find someone who can.”

She gently pulled Maria back into the hug and looked at Gordon and Travis. “Where. Is. Mumford?” She demanded.

“Probably the library,” Travis said. “Looking for a reverse for the spell. Right, Gordon?”

“Right,” Gordon answered quickly as he gave Penelope the same look he gave her when he tried to forbid her from going with David to court. It didn't work then either. Fortunately for Mumford, Penelope had Maria to look after.

“It won't help to just sit out here and wait,” she said gently. “Let's go and get something to eat from Mr. Hooper until he's ready. Travis? Can you let us know when Mumford gets back? And if he looks like he's going to be able to fix this?”

“Sure, Penelope,” he answered before looking at Gordon. “The answer to if he can fix this is yes no matter what, right?”

“That's what I'd say,” Gordon agreed as Penelope ignored them and focused on Maria. It wasn't long before Maria wasn't a kid anymore once again, with a quick hiccup of turning several others into children as well, but Penelope stayed the rest of the day anyway to make certain that was the end of it.

The now adult Maria leaned into Penelope. “You did that for a full week.”

“I'm just glad you didn't have to,” she answered calmly. “There are days I hate magic.”

“You're not the only one,” Maria agreed. “By the way, thanks for getting here so fast.”

“I only broke a couple traffic laws,” she assured her, pretty confident that her 'little sister' wasn't going to turn back into a child at this point. “It's what you do for family.”


End file.
